Volume 24, Issue 3
Alliance Negotiation Scale (Ans-A): Evidence on validity and reliability
Abstract
The existing measures to assess Therapeutic Alliance tend to focus on the degree of agreement or collaboration between patient and therapist regarding tasks and goals during therapeutic process. However, both theoretical studies and empirical research, suggest that also the way in which the dyad negotiates disagreements about goals and tasks is a fundamental element for alliance development and maintenance. Doran, Safran, Waizmann, Bolger y Muran (2012) have created a 12-item self-reported measure rated by the patient to evaluate this specific construct: The Alliance Negotiation Scale (ANS). This study aims to present the Spanish version of the scale (ANS-A) and the study of its psychometric properties in a population of argentine clients. After a back-translation of the items done by bilingual researchers the instrument was completed by a sample of 147 patients of psychotherapy. The scale showed adequate internal consistency (? = .78) and evidence of convergent and discriminant validity in relationship with the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI, Hatcher y Gillaspy, 2006). The instrument also presented construct validity with a two-factor solution as in the original scale. Currently there are scarce instrument to measure Alliance validated in Argentina. Thus, this study represents a step forward to help Spanish speaking researchers and clinicians to enrich the way in which they evaluate the therapeutic relationship, and also provides valuable information for continuing the validation of this new instrument and a different way to conceptualize therapeutic alliance.
Keywords
Therapeutic Alliance, Negotiation, Alliance Negotiation Scale, Reliability, Validity